


Kyoudai Ai

by LeafThoj



Category: Inuyasha - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Yakuza, Fanfiction, Half-Sibling Incest, M/M, Prologue, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-07 22:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1916643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeafThoj/pseuds/LeafThoj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sesshoumaru is the nidaime of the Inugami-gumi, and his father the great Inugami Taishou took over the enter west side of Japan's underworld within one generation during his prime. It's been ten years since his father's early death because he'd married a katagi (normal citizen) woman without anyone's knowledge even though he'd married Sesshoumaru's mother. His father buried himself with one of his three famous swords, he left Sesshoumaru with a dull blade that supposedly has been past down from their family (with their own kind of secret in its history). His father left his mutt of a half-brother (someone he has never acknowledged as his brother) the better of the other two swords the Tessaiga. They fight for this sword but Sesshoumaru has lost the fight due to some katagi's interference.<br/>A year ago when Inuyasha had gotten himself in a coma Sesshoumaru was unable to claim the sword Tessaiga that was the symbol of their father's power as the kumicho. It strikes a great blow as the new kumicho to see an illegitimate mutt like Inuyasha as the new owner of such a symbol.<br/>He made one vow and that was that Inuyasha would die in his hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sesshoumaru's Vow

**Author's Note:**

> Katagi: normal citizen (as compared to the yakuza)  
> Kumicho: head/top/boss of the yakuza family/clan  
> Onigiri: rice ball (sometimes with fillings and/or wrapped with seaweed wrap)  
> Gaki: kid/brat/punk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited: 12/22/2015

Sesshomaru laid slumped against a dumpster hidden in some alley stinking of rape, blood, fume and garbage. Then he remembered what today was. It was ten years today. Seventeen years since Father’s death. Inugami Taishou died in the hands of a _katagi_ because he’d gone and married a _katagi_ as if he was a normal man. Sesshomaru would never understand this so-called “love”. He would never want to protect a _katagi_ , he would never involve himself with one. 

With that in mind Sesshomaru pulled himself up. His pride was the only thing making him walk as he bled from his right shoulder, ignoring the intense gashing pain in his left forearm. He couldn’t move his left hand, the nerve endings had been severed. The bone had been sliced by Tessaiga it seemed. But he was not going to allow himself to die this way, bleeding to death here because he’d lost against his Father’s sword. The sword was entrusted to Inuyasha, the mutt his father bore with that _katagi._ Sesshomaru would not allow such a humiliation to his dignity as the _kumicho_ of the Inugami clan. 

Managing to slip into a quiet, shady apartment complex from the fire escape backdoor he made his way up the cement stairs. Finally he stumbled into the roof before collapsing against the wall and slumping down against it. 

Staring at the moon from this height he breathed in the air. Only selected few knew about his father’s clan, that the Inugami family had descended from a god. Hence the name.  

More or less Sesshomaru had some supernatural powers—abilities humans could only imagine. Until his father's unwise decision that gave life to Inuysha, their family had been selective about who was brought into the family. It was a careful decision they had to make to keep their bloodlines strong and their powers secret. 

His father and mother explained it as the spiritual power that was in their clan’s blood. Regeneration and fast recovery was one of those things, but he only remembered now because he’d never been struck down by anyone but his parents… until now. Now he needed those regenerative abilities. 

The traffic and the rest of society drowned out Sesshomaru’s wandering thoughts. He hated the city. He hated crowds. When he recovered from his wounds he was going to continue his mission. This was his resolution and he couldn’t back out from it. He had to forge his way even if it meant suffering and pain and death. Even if he had to face Inuyasha numerous of times, he would achieve his goal. 

“Hm…?” a voice was making a sound that Sesshomaru never heard before. It was a normal human interaction that no one around him dared to do. This foolish… 

Sesshomaru opened his eyes in realization that his guard had been down. The sun was high up. It was noon. His wounds were recovering slowly though it seemed at least his left ulna had healed from the cut Tessaiga had inflicted. Only a chance glance at his wound made him realize there was a dirty handkerchief tied around his still bleeding wound. 

Her scent wasn’t one Sesshomaru was accustomed to. Dirty. Tainted. Unclean and foul.  

A child? Sesshomaru raised his head and stared at the little girl wearing nothing but a white t-shirt to cover her bare body. He could clearly see the mess she’d been rolling in though his sight was blurry. From the scent he could tell that for as long as the girl had that shirt that was how filthy it was. The white t-shirt covered her body since it was adult size, making it look like a dirty white sleeping gown. 

The girl held a dirty hand out at him and he glared down at it. She was offering him an _onigiri_ and he didn’t know why. He didn’t need to eat. He wasn’t hungry. He only needed a meal once a day and it was enough to last him. He last ate yesterday night before the fight over Tessaiga. 

The girl frowned. Then she smiled as if something on Sesshomaru’s face had made her smile, when all he’d been doing was glaring at the food.  

 _Insultin_ _g… Humiliating…_  

“I’m leaving it here,” the girl said.  

 _Rude and persistent._   

The _onigiri_ was left on his lap and the girl rushed out of the roof. Sesshomaru could hear the reason why. She was being chased by some angry adults screaming and shouting throughout the apartment complex. They were searching for “the little rascal bitch” who stole from them despite their “goodwill”. The angry mob was enough for her to think she needed to worry over dragging Sesshomaru into it. As if he would have allowed that. Even injured like this he could stand his ground against some _katagi_ who clearly had no sense of honor or pride. _Disgusting_. 

His hate for the _katagi_ only continued to boil inside him. If his father who had built the Inugami-gumi from the ground up himself hadn’t operated by the rule of ‘no-harm to the _katagi_ ’ Sesshomaru wouldn’t be so stressed to begin with. Things were easier done in the underworld when he could just kill anyone senseless for crossing him. Instead he had to make do with killing meaningless yakuza who bothered him. It was to a point in these last ten years that Sesshomaru could simply glance down at someone with a killing intent and they fell to their knees crumbling. No one posed any real threat or challenge besides the _katagi_ that he could do nothing but use underhanded methods on. 

What was his father thinking? Falling for a _katagi_ and pretending to live that life despite having his Inugami-gumi to take care of, and it led to his death. In one generation his father managed to conquer the whole west of Japan while still in his prime, only to be put down like some mongrel for supposedly saving that _katagi_ woman who bore Sesshomaru’s supposed half-brother Inuyasha. Sesshomaru would never acknowledge that disgraceful _gaki_ as his brother. 

They only thing they shared was their genetics. Their blood. The next time they saw each other he knew Inuyasha would be overconfident in trying to take him down. Though he would enjoy taunting the bastard who would now return to attending high school.  

Everything was starting. It was finally moving again. Sesshomaru had waited an entire year since Inuyasha went into his coma. He would not allow anyone else to kill Inuyasha. And for allowing himself to be put into coma Sesshomaru would draw on the wound up tension in their ‘brotherly’ relationship as punishment for that idiot mutt. Sesshomaru would watch Inuyasha die in his hands. That, he promised in the blood they shared. The single tie that made them brothers. 

He closed his eyes once more to relax, rest, and allow his regenerating cells to heal him. So he sat still leaning against the wall of the roof entrance bathing in that warm sunlight. 


	2. Simultaneous Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his narrow win--if he could even call getting his ass saved by Kagome that--against Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha returns to school. He hears over and over again people making comments on "Inugami" and relating him to Sesshoumaru. His resolved a long time ago he wasn't going to be known as "Sesshoumaru's brother" or some such things, but he also remembers the woman that saved him...
> 
> Sesshoumaru's recovered after a couple of days. He doesn't see the little girl that had attempted to save and befriend him, but something draws him to where he'd first hid when he lost the fight for Tessaiga...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gakuran: stiff collar boy's uniform  
> Shinai: bamboo practice sword in kendo  
> Bokken: wooden practice sword in kendo  
> Bentou: packed lunch
> 
> Nidaime: second boss/head (this term is used for Sesshoumaru as the 2nd generation boss of Inugami-gumi which his father established)  
> *Mansion: in Japan this term is often used to describe condo apartments or large sized (expensive, extravagant) apartments  
> Yankee-gaki: Yankee + gaki (kid/punk/brat), yankee is the old style term to describe a delinquent. Sesshoumaru uses this describing Inuyasha
> 
> -edited 12/22/2015

Inuyasha tugged at his _gakuran_. It was red on the inside but on the outside looked like the standard issued _gakuran_. His mother made this for him when he’d been younger, the red cloth had some fire-resistant component. He had to wait until now to wear it, since he hadn’t been able to wear it until he could fit it. Though he’d been wearing it since he was in the first year of middle school it was finally starting to feel like he was filling it in. 

“Inuyasha.” Kagome’s voice. It sounded almost like _her_ voice though. They looked so alike it hurt a little, but it made him smile to think he was saved by both of these girls. There was supposed to be three other people in the world who looked exactly like each other, but to think Inuyasha had been destined to be helped by girls who were near identical to each other. Quite extraordinary, though he wasn’t going to spout that stuff in front of anyone. Especially Kagome who acted nothing like the woman he was thinking about right now. 

He stood up from his desk and walked to the back door of the classroom. The students were avoiding him because of his platinum long hair. Damn. Everyone was whispering about _Inugami_. Inugami Inuyasha. Inugami Sesshomaru. He was damn tired of being latched onto that damn Sesshomaru’s reputation. He had his own reputation and pride, even if it was as a delinquent. 

Kagome looked angry with him. Inuyasha took a step back from the door where she stood waiting. Before he could say something to stop her she was already snapping. 

“Why are you dressed like that?” she was yapping on and on. 

Jeez, it was because she wouldn’t leave him alone the other day that she was caught up in his fight with Sesshomaru. Now he had to carry around the title ‘relied on a woman’ for the rest of his life. Against a fight with Sesshomaru of all people. Forget his reputation his manhood was in danger. This nosy brat of a woman should have backed off when he told her to. 

“And why are you carrying the Tessaiga?” she glowered at him. 

Inuyasha lifted his shoulder a little to adjust the way the katana secured in the sword carrying bag hung. It wasn’t like he needed anyone to realize it wasn’t a _shinai_ or _boken_ but a real sword he carried with him.  

Before long he started arguing with her over something trivial. Every time she gave a lecture it felt demeaning. His intelligence was not by all means on a low scale. Somewhere along the lines they’d completely forgotten the issue of him carrying Tessaiga. 

How did the conversation flow into a worthless argument again? Ah, whatever. 

“Just come!” Kagome snapped. He found himself being pulled along. From the hallway students stopped, crowded and stared. From the stairs students paused long enough to be shocked. Then finally Kagome and he reached the roof and were alone for lunch. 

Inuyasha finally realized neither of them had their _bentou_. Just great, and he had a big appetite. 

“…Inuyasha!” Kagome screamed into his ears but anything he recalled after was only the sonic ringing. Damn her. He had sensitive hearing and she purposely used all her strength to scream at pointblank to hurt him. What a vindictive woman. Nothing like the woman whose face she shared. 

“What?” he yelled at her, his hands to his ears despite that it wouldn’t stop the ringing. In the end he was struggling against the girl as she grabbed at his _gakuran_. It wasn’t like he could just hit a girl. 

“Just show me your wound!” 

Inuyasha laid down on the floor where she’d already pinned him and stopped struggling. She’d managed to pull up his t-shirt after unbuttoning the rest of his _gakuran_. She sat on top of him in shock, and then with eyes of wonder. There was now only a shallow scar left from Sesshomaru’s blade. 

“It’s gone,” she gasped at the absence of his wound. 

“Of course. I’m tough,” Inuyasha glared at her. If anyone came up here there was going to be a world of annoyance to follow. “Get off me already,” he grumbled. He didn’t need any misunderstandings. No misunderstandings whatsoever was a nice idea. Especially when people were already lumping him with Sesshomaru. 

 As if his reputation hadn’t already gone down enough this situation would just make it worse. Plus, though his mother explained it vaguely, Inuyasha was still Inugami Taishou’s son. The blood of the Inugami was not as strong as it used to be, but it still made them stand out compared to other normal people. For example he healed faster than most, he was stronger than most people with near inhuman strength too. 

“Get off,” he finally growled. In the end he ended up getting slapped in the face for doing so, and he didn’t really understand why. It would mostly be a problem for her if she got caught sitting on top of him like that. It wasn’t like a guy lost anything when those things happened. 

“I don’t know why I even bothered,” she grumbled and stormed back into the building. Inuyasha just laid there deciding to skip class and stare at the sky. It was pointless being in class after all. Everyone would just whisper about _Inugami_ this, and _Inugami_ that. Damn, don’t just decide on your own who or what he was. That was his decision and no one else’s.  

Why’d he ever promise to finish high school? He should have just gone on with his damn life like he’d planned. The life of a yakuza, even if it was one that would go up against the Inugami-gumi... against Sesshomaru, the one blood left in his life. But then he knew why. He was saved by _her_ after all. Saved and in the end betrayed. 

 

Sesshomaru had been up on that roof for nearly two days now. The girl snuck in around the afternoons to give him food, but he hadn’t touched any of it. He really didn’t understand what she thought she was doing. He’d told her he didn’t need to eat, especially since he had lasted longer starving one time when his mother thought it fun to torture him that way. Three days was nothing to him. He only ate once a day because it shut Jaken up from all his long winded yapping faster than glaring the old imp down. 

Today the girl didn’t show up. He’d told her it was better she stopped coming to see him. After all, he didn’t need her being followed to him. Though at this point he was healed up so he was already getting ready to move. It was strange that despite not talking to him, yet obviously wanting to help him, the girl would not show on the day that Sesshomaru was leaving. 

Without any attachments left he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Jaken would be the only idiot fool enough to bother him at all. It was amazing he waited until now. Usually if Sesshomaru was gone without anyone’s knowledge for just an hour or so the annoying bastard would start making noise trying to find him. 

Sesshomaru walked to the ledge of the roof and stared down at the front of the apartment complex. A black BMW was parked out in the front. Jaken’s short imp-like form was shuffling back and forth at the passenger door. Impatient attendant as always. Jaken was throwing another fit mumbling to himself since Sesshomaru cancelled the call immediately after seeing Jaken’s caller ID. 

He couldn’t leave Jaken waiting for long. He did not like being chased after by Jaken. Though in the end Jaken was the only fool loyal to the point of being near indestructible. None of the beatings Sesshomaru lashed out to his younger members was enough to kill the weak-bodied Jaken, though men much larger and much stronger had fallen near death by it. Sesshomaru strolled down the stairs as he followed the unfamiliar scent of the filthy child who’d been intent on caring for him these last few days. 

He made his way from the backdoor around to the front. Jaken spotted him immediately and called after him. Sesshomaru turned away and ignored Jaken, strolling down the sidewalk. He didn’t want to ride in a car. He liked the fresh air. Jaken was tripping himself over nothing and bumping into people twice his size—since the old fool only came up to Sesshomaru’s thigh. The car was slowly following after them on the street, and because it was a dark stained glass black BMW no one dared to so much as put a scratch on it. After all only powerful people scared the foolish _katagi_. 

Just as he was passing by the alleyway he’d fallen in he stopped. Looking down the alleyway, damp and stinking of rape and murder he noticed the dumpster he’d fallen against those nights before. It was strange to think something that looked so ordinary in the background stood out to him. Especially since he never bothered with these things. 

The car and Jaken had caught up to him as he contemplated the reason for standing still there. There was no point in reminiscing on how the battle for Tessaiga ended for him. 

As a cat leap from the dumpster and ran off into the corner turn Sesshomaru finally realized why he kept staring at the dumpster. It was not because that was where he’d hid himself from view of the public eye. 

He ignored Jaken’s yapping as he strolled down the damp gravel road layered with blood, sex and kerosene.  

Finally he made it to the end of the dumpster hidden from view from the street where Jaken and the car waited. Behind the dumpster laid the body of the young girl who’d attempted to help his recuperation. He felt his expression darken. Though he never accepted nor asked for her help, he found it disgusting to think this child was dead. There was no doubt in his mind that the bruises hidden under that oversized t-shirt and the filth she was rolled in was the cause of her death. Abuse from her guardians perhaps. If she’d lived in that apartment complex he’d just climbed down of there really was no doubt. All those nights he stayed up there he heard what sounded mostly like forced sexual intercourse, drug use, abuse, and even the most frowned upon crime in his syndicate. _Violence against katagi._ This girl lived in this kind of environment and yet she was able to smile just yesterday when he asked her how she received the bruise on her eye. Now he knew. 

“ _Nidaime_?” Jaken squawked just meters away from him as he knelt down on his knee. “Sesshomaru ni…nidaime?” 

Sesshomaru picked up the limp little girl in his arms. Just short an inch of Jaken’s height, perhaps no older than eight years? Nine, maybe. She really wore nothing under her t-shirt. He had to wonder if just maybe there had been more than violence she’d received. Sesshomaru was well aware Jaken was frightened of the expression on Sesshomaru’s face. It was a good thing Jaken was too stupid to understand Sesshomaru’s thoughts. Jaken might have died from a heart attack due to fear if he’d been able. 

“Open the door, Jaken,” Sesshomaru said in a flat tone. There was never a need to show any expression with his followers. There was no need for feelings to begin with. Jaken opened the door hurriedly, still confused by Sesshomaru’s actions. “Close the door. I’m going to the mansion.” With that the door was closed softly and the car started off. His trusty drivers in the front, the A-Un twins nodded as they heard the destination. 

He stepped out when the first A-Un brother who was always on the left got out and opened the door. In his arms he still held on to the cold and limp body of the little girl. The second, the one always on the right who drove the car stood next to his brother after Sesshomaru stood from the car. He was greeted by his clansmen enthusiastically. The A-Un twins stared at the girl in his arms curiously after the united greeting. Neither said a word and Sesshomaru walked into the building. 

His business owned the entire building and his mansion apartment was the entire top floor. Once the elevator opened to the 13th floor which required a special key card he stepped out. Next to the elevator on the right was the stairs in case of an emergency. From the outside that also required the same keycard but from inside one just had to open the door. Unnecessary, he thought but it was part of safety regulation. 

Sesshomaru climbed the staircase in his mansion to the second level of the mansion to where the five bedrooms were. Jaken had one in the mansion. His was the one furthest away from Sessomaru’s because Sesshomaru found it disgusting to be any closer to the damn imp who waited on him hand and foot like some groveling slave. The old imp had some extreme masochistic tendencies it seemed and that was probably both a disgustingly annoying point as well as a good feature. After all, it meant Jaken wasn’t likely to die from anything Sesshomaru did to him with his bare hands. 

Sesshomaru entered his open bedroom and laid the little girl into his giant king-sized bed. Everything here was Spartan like, and near unused since Sesshomaru found even food and water a rare necessity of life. Clothing and his weapons were the only thing kept here worth having really. 

Sesshomaru shed off his ragged and bloodstained suit jacket and tossed it on his desk chair in the room only to notice his father’s short sword the Tensaiga in his inner pocket. He fished out the dull bladed sword no longer than his forearm. Unsheathing it Sesshomaru concentrated on the blade as he looked at it. The metal was nice since it sheen and gleamed in the light, yet the blade was dull. Despite being made by the master blacksmith Tootoosai the blade couldn’t cut a fruit any better than Jaken could grow an inch taller. Though if it was not thanks to this dissatisfying sword perhaps Sesshomaru might not have been able to see that smile from the little girl yesterday, or on the first day when they’d met. She smiled then too. 

A chain moved as if someone was stirring in a cell. There weren’t any chains here. 

He pulled down the blade from his examination only to see creatures he’d never seen before crawling on his bed around the little girl. The Tensaiga pulsed in his right hand as he stared at the three creatures grappling her. Only then to realize the girl was not dead and that the creatures were there to take her soul. 

Sesshomaru wondered if this vision was thanks to Tensaiga. Was he able to save the girl if it was, or had the blood loss caused him to hallucinate? Or was he the one who was dead and all this time he’d been behind that dumpster thinking he’d been alive? 

No. He was very much alive. The warmth he was uncomfortable with was still making him uncomfortable. There was only one thing to do to solve the mystery. So he cut, and though he hadn’t put much force into his swing he’d sliced right through one of the creatures and it dissipated. Sesshomaru sliced the next two and the chains on the girl’s ankles and wrists burst into small specks of nothing. 

He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the rest of the world being in color again instead of gray. He sheathed Tensaiga and finally understood why the swords were given such names. His father left him with a sword able to save people at death’s door. The sword of heaven. This was insulting. What was his father thinking giving the Tessaiga to Inuyasha of all people? A _yankee-gaki_ born between a _katagi_ and a yakuza would dirty a sword as fine as that. The third sword, his father’s sword of hell was a blade of legend despite that it’d only been nearly twenty years ago when it first appeared and disappeared. The sword had been heard to singlehandedly cut down hundreds and thousands of yakuza in his father’s hands when his father had conquered most of the west of Japan from other yakuza clans. His father had been buried with it by his side, taking to the grave “a sword that drank blood”—as it was stated in his will. 

The girl was coughing before her eyes open and she weakly sat up. Her wounds were gone, the bruises healed. She smiled when she saw Sesshomaru standing at the edge of the bed staring down at her. Though he cursed that he’d gotten such a useless sword, Sesshomaru couldn’t help but wonder what was this odd tenderness he felt? The girl smiled up at him and giggled. Suddenly a far off memory Sesshomaru had locked away poured into his brain.


	3. Remembering Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inuyasha never thought it too strange living with Sesshomaru, of course that was before he found some things out--about what his "brother" really thought of him. Sesshomaru feels the ghost of a young child who used to live with him when he looks at Rin, his soon-to-be adopted child Rin.  
> Some things just aren't what they seem in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nii-sama: the prefix roughly translating as "lord older brother"  
> "Ne"/"Nee": (in this context "nee" does not mean older sister), it is more or less used as "hey" when trying to get someone's attention  
> katagi-gaki: putting together the meaning for "katagi" (normal citizens who are not yakuza/criminals) and "gaki" (generally meaning brat, kid or punk) this is referring to someone as a just a normal punk kid (who is a nuisance) but Jaken uses "katagi" because he and Sesshomaru generally look down on normal citizens as nothing but fodder for yakuza business.  
>  yakinori: fried/dried seaweed (wrap, like used for sushi)  
> "Itadakimasu": a prayer of thanks said before eating a meal, either to the cook or to the gods. A lot like saying grace (but in one word)

Inuyasha giggled as he crawled through the bed sheets. His little fist had a clump of silky platinum hair as it traced the ends up to the face of the owner.  
The moment his head popped out of the sheets he looked up only to see a soft unguarded golden gaze smiling down at him. Sesshomaru was in no way smiling but his eyes said differently. Inuyasha smiled and greeted his older brother before curling up close into Sesshomaru’s arms wrapped around him.   
“Nee, Sesshomaru-nii-sama,” Inuyasha released the silky hair in his hand and pressed it against Sesshomaru’s face.  
“Hm?”  
Sesshomaru didn’t like to talk a lot, but Inuyasha liked when Sesshomaru was awake. It was easier to talk with Sesshomaru when he was just waking up, still asleep a little. He liked hearing his brother’s voice, it was soothing and made Inuyasha relax. Because when he was with the older men of the clan no one would bother with him. He’d always been alone until Sesshomaru came and got him after Mother passed away.   
“Nee, Sesshomaru-nii-sama,” Inuyasha repeated. Sesshomaru tugged him a little closer in response this time. “You’re warm, Nii-sama. I like when you hug me,” he beamed up at his brother. Sesshomaru just stared into his eyes for a minute. Then he smiled and laid on his back, resting Inuyasha over his chest and stomach. Inuyasha stretched out against his brother’s body and lazily laid on top of it like he would if he’d been on a bench or a log.  
Sesshomaru’s arms were rubbing circles into his back. Inuyasha liked the feeling. It was like he was a dog being pet lovingly by his owner. Though that idea bothered Inuyasha a little since he was called names related to dogs, he didn’t mind this kind of feeling. Because, after all, this feeling was caused by his brother. His beloved older brother.  
“I love you,” Inuyasha sighed.

Inuyasha opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He was lying on his cot in his rundown apartment that had no heating or electricity and only running water. He’d gone to sleep right after school let out, though along the way back he’d gotten in a total of four fights. After being slapped in the face by Kagome at lunchtime he knew the rest of the day would be a bad day. After all he was the guy everyone was itching to beat up and he was sporting a sting from that slap on his face. That nightmare just now was further proof of the bad day he was having.  
Now that he remembered the dream he shivered. He would never say he love Sesshomaru. Never. Not to him, not even to himself. Impossible. What was with this horrible, skin-crawling dream? It was no childhood memory that was for sure.   
The only thing he remembered clearly from his childhood was Sesshomaru’s cold distant back facing him no matter how much he called out and pleaded his “nii-sama”.   
The way the teenager Sesshomaru had cast him away and said he was no brother of his had cut a fine line between them that day. In front of the entire clan, on his seventh birthday ten years ago Inuyasha had never relied on another person. Not like he’d hoped to rely on Sesshomaru. Instead was cruelly and brutally shown the truth.  
Sesshomaru had at the beginning gave Inuyasha a feeling of belonging. As the days turned into weeks and those weeks into a couple of months, Inuyasha found Sesshomaru distancing from him. At first Inuyasha had thought he’d done something Sesshomaru hadn’t liked. After all they were practically strangers. Then that day came when the clan heads confronted them at the main house. Sesshomaru had refused to look at Inuyasha, had only shown Inuyasha his back. Then he’d said they were not brothers.  
It was from there Inuyasha understood the cruel joke Sesshomaru had played on Inuyasha. He hated Inuyasha. He hated that Inuyasha had been the cause of their father’s death. He hated Inuyasha’s mother who stole their father’s love from Sesshomaru’s mother. He hated everything that had to do with Inuyasha. From then on Inuyasha had lived away from Sesshomaru. He had promise himself he would become a yakuza so much better and stronger than Sesshomaru to pay him back for his ‘generosity’ those couple months of toying with Inuyasha.  
That day, the last time he would ever let himself see his brother’s back had been the death of the child named Inugami Inuyasha. Sesshomaru killed him with his own hands, by his own means, and Inuyasha hoped Sesshomaru had been satisfied with that because Inuyasha would have Sesshomaru’s life as payback for it.

Sesshomaru heard his door open a crack and turned around to see Rin peeking shyly from the crack in the door. Jaken was yapping away in the hall at her again about something or other to draw her away. Sesshomaru stood from his desk in his office and stared at her until she looked away then back at him.  
She slipped in, her hands linked behind her. She bounced between her bare heels to the balls of her feet then twirled.  
“I’m so sorry, Boss,” Jaken gasped as he clung at the door threshold for breath. Apparently having chased Rin around was exhausting. It was good that there was now someone to play with Jaken. Less annoyance in his life was good.   
“I told her to wait until later but when I turned my eyes away this katagi-gaki…” Jaken’s voice trailed off when he finally looked up at Sesshomaru. “I’m sorry, Nidaime!” Jaken fell to his little knees as Rin stared at him in wonder with a finger at her lips. She was perplexed at what was usual for Jaken. Seeing that flicker of interest in her eyes amused Sesshomaru.  
“Rin,” Sesshomaru called her. She turned and smiled at him. That same smile from yesterday.   
The filthy little girl who came to life again was smiling at him as though nothing had ever happened, and he’d just simply decided to take her home as thanks for caring for him. Though in the end her association with him was probably the probable cause for her near premature death.  
“Does it look nice, Boss?” Rin asked almost innocently. If it wasn’t for that big smile on her face to hide how excited she was to wear new clothes and be able to have a warm bath she would have successfully acted shy and modest. What was a chore to him was apparently a luxury to her. Then again Sesshomaru should have remembered that, since naiveté and poverty was a key theme in yakuza work.  
Sesshomaru furrowed his eyebrows. He didn’t like that Rin was suddenly associating herself as a part of the yakuza world. She would not have such a pure image afterwards. Just the same way as how the last child he allowed in his life was tainted.   
Rin could stay a katagi. He had to make sure she stayed that way. It would be good if she did. She would never have to know the true hardship of a yakuza after she had already undergone the hardship of a katagi.  
“You insolent brat,” Jaken was spouting at Rin who frowned. “Show some respect, you should call the Boss ‘Nidaime’, you-”   
Sesshomaru decided to cut him off. “-You’re not one of ours, Rin.” She had no right to call him ‘Boss’ or ‘Nidaime’. She was Rin.  
“Then, Sesshomaru-sama,” she beamed as if to begin with what to call him had been no problem at all. “What do you think?” She twirled for him again.  
“It’s nice,” he answered.  
“Thank you,” she said. This time genuinely shy. “I…” she started to say but seemed to stop to rethink her response. With enthusiasm she announced, “I’ll pay you back for the new clothes! And I won’t get them dirty.”  
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Jaken started arrogantly, taking on the talking role for Sesshomaru. Rin looked at Jaken curiously again. This time confused though. “Sesshomaru-nidaime is giving them to you as a gift. You should accept them and do with them as you please.” Jaken puffed out his chest with pride. “He’s decided to take you under his wing because it is obvious you’ll just go off and die after he already saved your life.” Rin stared curiously some more. “You’re going to have to go to school and be a good kid so you don’t get in the way of the Nidaime you hear me?” Jaken was squawking.   
Sesshomaru turned back to his desk. He wanted to ignore Jaken whose voice was just insufferable at most times.  
The door closed and the voices faded down the stairs to the kitchen as Sesshomaru focused on his work and waited for the profile on Rin to arrive on his laptop. He was at least going to have her adopted so he could care for her legally. To do that he needed a complete background and profile on her to make sure she had no loose ends before taking her. If she had a guardian it would have been easier to just be a daddy-long-leg but when she finally talked earlier she had blank eyes while shaking her head when asked about her family.  
When the file finally came he found her school picture from Kindergarten. She was five years old then, and looked healthier in the picture. Her parents died when a vicious woman tried to kidnap her but was caught by her parents on the street. There was a struggle and the woman pushed Rin’s parents into the street. An incoming truck crushed the parents instantly just as the police arrived to stop the struggle. Rin was hospitalized for the bruises and gash on her forehead when she fell on the sidewalk during the struggle.  
Sesshomaru glared at the screen. At least the gash didn’t left a scar. The woman who attempted to kidnap Rin had been put in a psychotic ward. Rin was thrown into an orphanage and though on paper it showed that she was supposedly to be in the next district here she was in the city, running around with adults who probably just found her amusing as a punching bag.  
Sesshomaru closed his laptop as he felt Rin at his side. She smiled up at him again and said excitedly, “Time to eat!” Sesshomaru resigned the situation that would follow if he refused though he didn’t feel like it.   
He walked with her as she skipped along down the hallway. He’d never seen anyone skip before unless he chanced to see children doing so outside his car window as they drove past. Perhaps it was something only children did, though he didn’t recall ever doing anything like that in his childhood. Was it an act done through an emotion he never felt? If it was then it was unnecessary, though it felt nice to watch Rin skip.  
“Sesshomaru-sama, let’s eat together every day!” Rin exclaimed happily.  
“Sure,” he answered and picked her up to carry her down the stairs. She was warm, though her skin was cool. It was a good thing she wasn’t like a cold corpse as she was earlier.  
He carried her to the table in the kitchen and set her down on one of the chairs. Jaken was gaping in awe, mouth wide open like a baby bird waiting to be fed. Sesshomaru ignored him and sat down on the adjacent side of Rin as Jaken set the table.  
Dinner seemed different from usual. Jaken usually made some elaborate dish, or ordered premium sushi. Today was onigiri wrapped in yakinori and what seemed like a mess of oddly shaped sliced vegetables mixed with thinly sliced pork…? What was it exactly?  
“It is pork stir-fried. I made it!” Rin exclaimed at Sesshomaru’s silent stare. He just looked to her and heard Jaken’s nervous mumbling and apology.  
“Nee, Sesshomaru-sama,” Rin tugged at the long sleeve he was wearing. He looked at her again. “Let’s say it together, okay?” That was what she said but he really didn’t know what she was saying. Jaken was lecturing her hurriedly and annoyingly about something that Sesshomaru didn’t do such things because he wasn’t some lowly katagi. Rin just smiled and clapped her hands together.  
“Itadakimasu,” he said automatically as a vision suddenly played through his eyes. A child used to sit where Rin was sitting now, on the adjacent side of the table from where he sat. He also used to eat meals with Sesshomaru and would say this, so Sesshomaru knew the prayer.  
“See, Jaken?” Rin grinned. Already she was comfortable with Jaken, which was odd. No woman was ever comfortable with Jaken. After all he was a short, slightly withered, bird-beaked imp. “Sesshomaru-sama knows.” She beamed and stood on the chair to reach for an onigiri for her plate. Then she sat down on her knees on top of the chair and chomped down gladly on it.  
“Jaken,” Sesshomaru looked at the old man.  
“Y-yes, Nidaime?”  
Sesshomaru turned back to the happy picture of Rin eating. Jaken understood immediately and scurried off to get her a couple pillows so she could sit properly and reach the table. He vaguely remembered Jaken saying something about having a proper booster seat bought tomorrow morning so she would be able to sit in the chair.  
Odd, Sesshomaru thought. Didn’t the child he used to share this mansion with sit on the same chair? He didn’t have a booster seat and didn’t remember him sitting on pillows to eat properly at the table. His memory wasn’t usually this hazy, though he didn’t really trust his own words on that. After all his mother used to test out all her medicine on him. Giving him one drug or another and countering some poison or another with another concoction. Sometimes he wondered why she never became a pharmacologist instead of a doctor.  
He schooled his features immediately. Thinking of his mother never boded well. He liked his distance. His mother lived at the main house and he lived here, and he rarely ran into her because everyone knew he liked to keep his distance though they didn’t know why. Not even Jaken, though Jaken seemed to think he was uncomfortable and hated his mother. More or less it was true, but it wasn’t the kind that made him want to kill her.

Inuyasha had decided to take a walk since his dream had bothered him so much. It was a little too late for high school students to be strolling outside in the city, but Inuyasha didn’t really care. It helped him stop thinking about his hunger.  
He kept walking until he came upon a temple. He decided to run up the steps and when he finally made it up there he was greeted with an amazing view. An aged old sacred tree in the middle of the courtyard.  
“Who are you?” a rickety voice asked him and he was startled by the fact that he hadn’t felt someone come up to him earlier. His sight at night was better than most people though it was hardly night vision, but he also had a good nose. “A gakuran? Kagome’s friend?”  
“Grandpa, Kagome’s school wears sailor uniforms,” a boy said standing next to the old grandfather. Inuyasha pulled away. He hadn’t even felt a little kid come near him either?   
If Sesshomaru was here he would probably scoff at Inuyasha about being a low breed who should just die. Most of their conversations consisted of insults and threats.  
“A gakuran is a real uniform, Souta,” the grandfather argued back as if he was all wise and knowing. He even nodded, agreeing with himself. Inuyasha never met this kind of relaxed elder before. Most elders threw things at him and tried to chase him away, calling him a demon. They were always very vicious as if Inuyasha was a disease.  
“Higurashi Kagome,” Inuyasha named the girl they were probably talking about. The two then looked at him. They smiled to each other in a way that did not seem to bode well. Almost sneaky.  
“So you’re her boyfriend?” the elementary school kid Souta grinned. “Sister sure has a thing for weird guys.”  
“Weird?” Inuyasha glowered. He absentmindedly touched Tessaiga strapped in the sword carrying bag at his back. Did carrying Tessaiga everywhere seem strange? He had to have a license to own a sword, and if he was caught carrying a real sword in public there was going to be a lot of problems legally. Did he not look like a student of kendo, maybe?  
“Your hair is silver,” Souta pointed out.  
“So?”  
“It’s long.”  
“That so…” he mumbled.   
Inuyasha touched his platinum long hair. Was it that strange? Well it wasn’t in the best shape either, though that couldn’t be helped. Inuyasha didn’t really care all that much for his image to begin with. Though the hair was probably the one reason people lumped him with Sesshomaru so easily.  
Then his stomach growled.   
The two flashed a grin wide as can be and before Inuyasha knew it he was sitting at Kagome’s dinner table with her family. Of course she’d managed to slap him in the face again and left another red mark on his cheek. The old man and Souta just grinned and chuckled to themselves evilly as they kept offering him food.  
“Hey, Kagome,” Inuyasha put down his third bowl of rice. He hadn’t really been paying attention to the family conversation though he answered most questions directed to him. He wasn’t going to tell normal people his family history or that he was related to yakuza. It would probably look bad for Kagome. They were friends after all, and to him she was important despite her not-cute behavior.  
“…I heard he’s really handsome,” Kagome was saying to her mother but then stopped and looked at Inuyasha.  
“Oh, by first name?” Inuyasha heard Souta and the old grandfather snickering to each other. He seethed a bit but reeled back his anger. What else was she supposed to call her when he was in her house with so many other Higurashi?  
“Yes?”  
He turned to her quickly. “Could you help me later?” he managed to say quickly in fear he might lose the courage to ask.   
Since she was a girl she probably had better sense than him what to do anyways. So since he was already here he might as well indulge in a little more of her family’s hospitality. And with that he’ll be able to throw away all the painful memories in the past.


End file.
